Steven Sandor's Blog, page 3

FCE unveils goalkeeping contingent

FCE announced an all-Edmonton goalkeeping contingent on Thursday.

The team will have FCE Academy and University of Alberta product Connor James and MacEwan University grad and former FC Gute keeper Dylon Powley vying to be the team’s No. 1 keeper when the season opens in April. And, overseeing the keepers is Lars Hirschfeld, the former national-team starter who left Edmonton to pursue a career that took him to England, Scotland, Germany, Romania and Norway.

Powley and James are the seventh and eighth players on the FCE roster ahead of the 2019 Canadian Premier League season. Of those eight, seven are Edmontonians.

“(Coach Jeff Paulus) has really put his money where his mouth is,” said James. “He said he was going to build the team using Edmonton players, using academy players, and that’s what he’s done.”

Look for a feature on these signings Friday on the CanPL.ca site.

As some of you already know, I have been contributing longer features to the league’s site. On top of the feature on the Eddies goalkeeping crew, check out:

Sandor: Forge FC’s Zajac ‘takes control of future’ with Canadian Premier League move

FC Edmonton’s Paulus already asking questions of CPL opponents: Can you keep up?

‘Like another planet’: Well-traveled Di Chiara brings wealth of experience to York9

Previously ‘lost’ in U.S. league, Valour’s Skylar Thomas targets national team return

 

Former Loon becomes Forge FC’s first international signing

According to his bio on the MLS website, “(Bertrand) Owundi is a strong and powerful centre back with great athleticism who reads the game incredibly well. As a player with Cameroonian national team experience under his belt, Minnesota feels he has a lot of potential and can develop into a high-level defender in MLS.”

It didn’t quite work out that way. Owundi, who played in Cameroonian green at the 2018 African Cup of Nations, was dispatched by Minnesota United to the Charlotte Independence of the USL. At the conclusion of the 2018 season, his contract option was declined.

He’s going to get a new opportunity, though, and it will come in the Canadian Premier League. On Thursday, Forge FC announced that Owundi is the first international signing in team history.

“Bertrand is a very good addition to our ongoing roster build. He brings a solid mentality to our defensive core and valuable experience on the international stage,” said Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis in a release.

Owundi didn’t get into an MLS game with Minnesota, but did play in a friendly against Deportivo Saprissa. But, with international experience, Owundi will likely get the chance with Forge FC to make up for the professional minutes he didn’t get in 2018.

 

Hocine looks to anchor the back line in Halifax

Near the end of November, Zachary Sukunda was announced as the first player signing in the history of the Halifax Wanderers.

When the announcement was made, Sukunda got a call from his old Montreal Impact Academy teammate, Chakib Hocine. And Hocine had a surprise for his old friend.

“I didn’t know that he was going to sign there, so I called him to say ‘well done,'” recalled Hocine. “And then I said, ‘we’re going to be teammates!'”

As Sukunda’s deal was announced, Halifax and Hocine were just coming to terms on a deal that would bring the six-foot-five Canadian defender back to his home country.

Hocine played in the Montreal Impact academy system and played for FC Montreal of the USL in the 2015 season.

Hocine spent last season with Finnish side Ekenas IF. At six-foot-five, he is expected to be a commanding presence in the box. He was with Ekenas IF of the Finnish second division, and enjoyed a great season where he was nominated for defender-of-the-year honours in the second tier. He had offers from first- and second-division teams in Finland. But, after a couple of phone calls with Wanderers coach Stephen Hart, he decided to make the move to the Canadian Premier League.

“It was a very good season for myself and the team,” he said.

“I am looking for him to bring a certain level headed leadership,” said   Hart in a release. “We scouted him extensively. He is good in the air and comfortable on the ground.” 

At Ekenas, Hocine played with former FC Edmonton midfielder Hanson Boakai.

“I knew he was from Edmonton,” said Hocine. “And I was joking with him about playing against him next year in the Canadian Premier League, that he’d be playing for Edmonton.  But he’s decided to stay in Finland a bit longer.”

But, not everything about Hocine’s signing went so smoothly. He put pen to paper on a deal in mid November, and he really wanted one of those cool CanPL hoodies that the players wear when they’re unveiled by their teams. He waited. And waited.

“I was waiting and waiting for the hoodie, and that was difficult,” he laughed. “I finally received it last week, I think it was sent a couple of months ago.”

Ex-Fury Oliver Minatel makes Canadian return with Cavalry FC

Cavalry FC head coach Tommy Wheeldon said it’s important that a first-year club that’s building its roster seek out players who can be trusted.

And trust was a big factor in the decision to bring Brazilian forward Oliver Minatel to Calgary.

“When you build your roster in year one, we want trusted references and players, who we know will help us build our culture,” he said.

Minatel played with the Ottawa Fury, where he worked with assistant coach Martin Nash. Now, Nash works with Wheeldon in Calgary. The relationship between Nash and Minatel played a big role in making this deal happen. There was interest in Australia, where the player spent time in 2018.

“But he was very excited to be able to come back to Canada,” said Wheeldon. “He wanted to return.”

Wheeldon said Minatel will fit the Cavalry style as he can both finish chances and create goals. Minatel has scored for the Fury in the Canadian Championship, so he has experience in that tournament, as well. The fact that the goal came against FC Edmonton might make the Cavalry fans smile, well, just a little bit.

“He is going to be a great influence on our young, Canadian players,” said Wheeldon.

Pacific FC repatriates a trio of Canadian players

Pacific FC announced the signings of three British Columbia players — Matthew Baldisimo and Terran Campbell has been in the Vancouver Whitecaps system, and Alessandro Hojabrpour, who had been playing in the youth wing of Bulgarian side, Lokomotiv Plovdiv.

Campbell and Baldisimo saw their playing time in USL plummet after the Vancouver Whitecaps chose to shutter their WFC2 program and instead affiliate with the expansion side, Fresno FC, in 2018.

In 2017, with WFC2, Baldisimo got into 23 USL matches, playing a total of 1,187 minutes. Campbell played 1,788 minutes over 25 matches. Compare that to 2018 in Fresno: Baldisimo played just 264 minutes over three games. And Campbell played a total of a whopping 43 minutes over five substitute appearances.

Before heading to Bulgaria, Hojabrpour was with the Whitecaps residency.

“These three are solid young players in their age group and we are glad to have them join us to continue their careers back in Canada, ” said Michael Silberbauer, head coach of Pacific FC, in a release issued by the club. “They bring energy and excitement to our growing team.” 

Baldisimo captained the Canadian U-17 team in 2015 at the CONCACAF Championships.

 

In search of Manny: Aparicio will play for York 9

With York 9, Manny Aparicio will get the chance to do something he didn’t get to do in three years as a Toronto FC player. And that’s play a league game in front of family and friends.

Aparicio, unveiled by York 9 on Monday, spent three years on the books of Toronto FC’s senior squad (2013-15), but didn’t appear in a single MLS match. Aparicio has spent the previous three years in Spain, playing with SD Ordenes, CD Izarra and CD San Roque de Lepe.

Aparicio has one senior men’s national-team cap; he played two minutes of a 2014 friendly against Colombia.  He represented Canada at the 2015 Pan Am Games and played for the U-20 side at the 2015 CONCACAF Championship.

Aparicio and York 9 Coach and Technical Director Jim Brennan know each other from TFC’s Academy. Aparicio was signed to a senior TFC contract in 2013 out of the academy.

 

We watched the MLS Superdraft so you didn’t have to

First, before I write this, in the spirit of the MLS Superdraft, I’m gonna call a timeout right off the bat.

Wait.

Wait.

Wait.

Wait some more.

What can I be thinking about right now?

Didn’t I know what I was going to do right off the bat?

Wait, think I got it.

No, that’s not it.

Wait.

OK, I think I can start now.

So, if you could make it through the marathon of men in suit and ties calling timeouts, the trading of GAM and TAM, the flipping of picks, you might have noticed that five Canadians were selected in the first two rounds of the 2019 MLS Superdraft.

Or, maybe you had a better way to spend your Friday than watching a draft, which is frankly, the most boring thing in the world. Following the results of drafts is one thing, but watching people walk up to a podium and wave scarves, with the whole process slowed down to a crawl by timeout after timeout, it’s mind-numbingly dull. If the real reason the Philadelphia Union traded all of its draft picks away was so the staff wouldn’t have to sit through hours of this, well, can’t say you can blame them, can you?

But it’s the results of the draft that are important, not the hemming and hawing and photo ops and the GAM/TAM trades we’ll all forget by tomorrow.

So, onto the five Canadians. (None of whom were picked by Canadian teams.)

Callum Montgomery, who was a PDL standout with the Victoria Highlanders, was taken fourth overall by FC Dallas. Montgomery is a six-foot-two centre back who also has a bit of offensive upside; he scored three times and added four assists in 21 games this season for the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Those are decent returns for a defender.

Dayne St. Clair has played in the Canadian U-20 program, and was rated as the top keeper in the draft. The University of Maryland product went seventh overall to Minnesota United. He’s a raw prospect who will need some work — but that’s true of most goalies who come out of university.

Now, before I get to the next three, I’m gonna take another timeout. I’m like that annoying guy who runs a team in your fantasy draft, who takes up a whole table to himself thanks to all his magazines and cheat seats, and takes five minutes to make a pick. He hems and haws from the first round on. Every time it’s his turn to pick, you roll your eyes. And he finishes in last place. Year after year. Despite turning your draft into a five-hour ordeal and carrying a library on his back, he makes a hash of his picks. Always. You wouldn’t put up with him, but he’s easy money.

OK, back to it!

Tajon Buchanan, from Brampton, Ont. (basically our soccer capital) slipped to nine, where he was taken by the New England Revolution. Buchanan is a speed burner with the kind of raw athleticism that MLS GMs love.

Another Syracuse Canadian, centre back Kamal Miller, went 27th overall to Orlando City, a team that has drafted its fair share of Canadians in the past (Cyle Larin, Richie Laryea). A Canadian defender from Syracuse may give you visions of Skylar Thomas or Jordan Murrell — also Orange alumni — but we’ll see how Miller fares on a team that needs defensive help, badly. But Orlando City has a track record of giving Canadians chances.

Finally, Mamadi Camara, from Simon Fraser University, went 46th overall to the San Jose Earthquakes. Camara scored 29 times in 69 appearances for SFU.

 

Wanderers sign four players from T&T

Halifax Wanderers unveiled four Trinidad and Tobago players on Thursday; veteran keeper Jan-Michael Williams, forward Akeem Garcia, midfielder Andre Rampersad and midfielder Elton John.

No, not that Elton John. That other one supports Watford.

Wanderers coach Stephen Hart managed Trinidad and Tobago’s national side after he coached the Canadian national team. His assistant in Halifax, Derek King, previously worked with T&T’s under-20s. Hart said he went back to the Caribbean to look at these players — but they certainly weren’t strangers to him.

Williams played for Hungarian giants (well, it used to be a giant club, at least) Ferencvaros for four years. He was signed by Sheffield United but was sent to Budapest because of issues with working papers in the U.K. He was paired with Canadian keeper Wojtek Zarzycki for part of his career with Fradi.

“He was one of my captains at the senior team… He is going to be a good part of the dressing room, as he is quite a character,” said Hart. “That’s one thing that’s missing in the game now, players who keep things lively.”

Hart said that while the dressing room remains a “sacred place,” they don’t offer the respite for players that they used to. They’re more businesslike now, and he believes that players need to know there’s a place they can go to simply be themselves.

He said that Garcia was impressive with T&T’s U-20s and was knocking at the door of the senior team.

John is not a player Hart coached at T&T. He said he was impressed by the player, but he had just moved to Belgium — and he didn’t want to recall a player who was trying to get settled in a European league so he would be a depth guy on the national side.

“He’s very composed on the ball and he’s a good tackler.”

He’s also seen King shifted to centre back at Central FC in Trinidad and Tobago.

Hart said he has more signings that still have to be announced, but is still looking for positions to fill.

“I want to have two players for every position, then blend in the younger talent.”

MORE SIGNINGS

Earlier Thursday, Winnipeg’s Forge FC unveiled a pair of Raphaels — defenders Raphael Ohin and Raphael Garcia.

Garcia, a teenage fullback, impressed the coaches at the CanPL’s open trials in Montreal. He had previously spent time in the Montreal Impact’s academy system.

Ohin, a Ghanaian, has spent the previous three seasons with WSA Winnipeg of the PDL.

“Raphael has been consistently the top performer for the WSA Winnipeg franchise for the last few seasons,” said Valour FC coach Rob Gale in a release. “It’s a great addition for us he’s a terrific character and this will be a great challenge for him to progress into full-time professional soccer.”

AND MORE 

Forge FC announced that the club has inked former Canadian U-20 Tristan Borges. He most recently played with the U-21 side of Dutch club, Heerenveen.

“Tristan is a dynamic midfielder who brings an exciting dimension to our attack through his creativity, versatility and ability to attack the goal,” said Bobby Smyrniotis, Technical Director and Head Coach of Forge FC, in a release issued by the club. “This, coupled with his international experience for club and country, make him a valuable addition to our team.”

Three CanPL sides get first-round byes in new Canadian Championship format

Get your seeds! Everyone, come get your seedings!

Greenhouses don’t have as many seedings as the new, improved Canadian Championship will have in 2019.

With the addition of the Canadian Premier League teams, there will be 13 teams who will vie to take the title this year, which more than doubles the size of the competition.

How do you make an odd number of teams fit into a bracket? Well, here we go:

ROUND THE FIRST

PLSQ winners AS Blainville and League1 Ontario champs Vaughan Azzurri will be entered into the draw with four CanPL sides — Cavalry FC, Pacific FC, Halifax Wanderers and York 9. From these games, three survivors will emerge. As well, Canada Soccer will ensure that the two division-three teams cannot play each other in this round. So two of the four CanPL teams will be facing L1O ir PLSQ opposition, while the remaining two will draw each other.

ROUND THE SECOND

The three survivors of the first round will join the three remaining CanPL sides — FC Edmonton, Valour FC and Forge FC. In this round. FCE, Valour and Forge were all granted higher seeds and byes into the second round by Canada Soccer; it wasn’t an arbitrary decision. Because FCE is an existing club and has previously competed in the competition, the Eddies get into this round. And, because Forge FC and Valour FC were the first two clubs announced by the league and received their sanctions a year before the rest of the league, they also get the pass.

Three teams will survive this round.

ROUND THE THIRD

The USL’s Ottawa Fury join MLS sides Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps in this round, plus the three survivors of round two. Note that the USL team received a higher seed than the Canadian Premier League franchises. I will leave it to you to fight that out on the message boards. I’m only the messenger, here.

ROUND THE FOURTH

Toronto FC, as defending champion, gets a bye all the way to the semifinals. The three survivors from round three join them.

ROUND THE FIFTH

The final, contested on the 18th and 25th of September.

All of the ties will be done over two legs, with the away-goals rule. If the score is tied over the second leg, there will be no extra time — just like the CONCACAF Champions League. Teams will now go directly to kicks.

Canada still has just one spot in the CONCACAF Champions League. That spot will go to the winner of this tournament.

Haber unveiled as Pacific FC’s target man

In what has to be the shortest press conference in the history of press conferences, Pacific FC unveiled Marcus Haber as its latest signing on Wednesday morning.

The announcement took all of a couple minutes with no questions from the media during the streamed portion of the event.

Haber left Dundee of the Scottish Premier League by mutual consent so he could sign in his home province of British Columbia. He has made 27 appearances for the Canadian national side and has scored three goals.

Rob Friend, sports director for Pacific FC, said that when he and coach Michael Silberbauer discussed the need for a target man, it was Haber’s name that jumped to the forefront. A B.C. native, a former Whitecap, with nearly a decade of experience in Europe.

Haber’s presence suggests that Silberbauer will try a more direct style of football than many of the other CanPL coaches are talking about, but he has also vowed not to be tactically rigid, that he will learn from what his players can do and build a style to suit those talents.

“He will give us some versatility in attack,” Silberbauer said, noting that Haber will not only be good in creating chances for himself, but can work the ball with his feet and create for others.

“He’s still at an age where he has some of his best years in front of him,” said Silberbauer.

Haber turns 30 on Friday.

“Joining Pacific Football Club is not just an opportunity to come back to where I grew up, but also a chance to be part of history,” Haber said in a release issued before the unveiling. “I’m excited to be back on the West Coast, it is an important part of who I am.”